Firstly, here in the UK we always say either "skive (off)" or "bunk off". I had never heard of "playing hookie" before this thread! The formal terms used by teaching staff are "playing truant" and "absconding from school", which would both sound quite out of place in an informal situation!

The most standard translation in Spanish is "hacer novillos" but according to my dictionary of colloquialisms there are other ways of saying it such as:
"irse de pinta" in Mexico
"hacerse la rata/la rabona" in Argentina and Uruguay
"hacerse la vaca" in Peru
"hacer la cimarra" in Chile
"capar clase" in Colombia

NB: I can only assume the regional varieties are correct, I've never heard them.

We used to say "blaumachen" when we were at school. Was ist deiner Meinung dazu?

Click to expand...

Have you ever been in a German school (and did you need to blaumachen there)?

Well, yes, the word can be used in German, but it sounds quite old-fashioned. Its translation is "to make blue."

To describe the meaning of word "schwänzen" (which is much more common nowadays), a very thorough explanation is required. It is akin to "Schwanz" (tail), and was first actively used in Rotwelsch (schwentzen) in the 18th century as a word for "to loiter (crime not necessarily implied)/hang around," and Luther used it for "to strut." These days, it is used as an equivalent of "to play hookie."

Firstly, here in the UK we always say either "skive (off)" or "bunk off". I had never heard of "playing hookie" before this thread! The formal terms used by teaching staff are "playing truant" and "absconding from school", which would both sound quite out of place in an informal situation!

The most standard translation in Spanish is "hacer novillos" but according to my dictionary of colloquialisms there are other ways of saying it such as:
"irse de pinta" in Mexico
"hacerse la rata/la rabona" in Argentina and Uruguay
"hacerse la vaca" in Peru
"hacer la cimarra" in Chile
"capar clase" in Colombia

NB: I can only assume the regional varieties are correct, I've never heard them.

Come to think of it, we also use the term "to skip school" in England.

Another term used in Chile is "hacer la chancha", which translates into English as "to do/make the (female) pig" strangely enough!!

The other phrases really do not translate literally at all:

Hacer novillos = "to do/make young bulls"Irse de pinta = there is just no way to translate this! "to go off on appearance"???Hacerse la rata/rabona/vaca = "to become the rat/camp-follower(??)/cow"Hacer la cimarra = there is literally no translation, "la cimarra" does not have any meaning on its own that I know of.Capar clase = "to castrate(!) class"

They sound ridiculous I know, but if anyone else feels they can be translated literally then please try!

I wanted to start this thread, but I am late. What I miss here, are some explanations of words or phrases. If anyone feels like explaining the Turkish expression, the Finnish, etc., please do !

Now I thought I had not read about the English word playing truant/truancy here, but I did come across it later on; it refers to beggars, vagabonds, etymonline.org tells us,

The Dutch spijbelen is supposed to refer to a bum, but no further reference can be found. I have also heard of haagschool doen, lit. to play hedgeschool, which I'd associate with hiding - and the English absconding, maybe the 'skiving'/ 'bunking' off.

3. okuldan kaçmak is a bit different. It litterally means "to run away from the school", and it means, to attend the first two or three classes, and then leave the school in order to attend the classes at the private institutes (called: Dershane).

In Aberdeen (Scotland) we used the word 'plunk' for truant. It was said to have come, as many north-east Scots words do, from sea-trading with the Netherlands and was a corruption of their word 'plenken' meaning to play truant. Perhaps a Dutch speaker could help.